<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>His favourite thing by Castilian</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26992447">His favourite thing</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Castilian/pseuds/Castilian'>Castilian</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Merlin (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Caring Merlin (Merlin), Hospitals, Hurt Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), M/M, Whumptober 2020</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:41:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>295</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26992447</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Castilian/pseuds/Castilian</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin visits Arthur in the hospital.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2056551</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>104</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>His favourite thing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for Whumptober prompt nº 13: oxygen mask.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Merlin enters the room, Arthur has his eyes closed, but he opens them the moment Merlin sits in the chair near the bed. </p><p> </p><p>“Hello,” says Merlin. “They’ll take this in a moment,” Merlin adds when Arthur tries to remove the oxygen mask. Merlin takes Arthur’s left hand. In the right, Arthur has the oximeter the doctor placed to monitor his oxygen levels. Before meeting Arthur, Merlin would never have thought he had a thing for hands. But now, this is probably Merlin’s favourite thing in the world: holding Arthur lovely hands in his.</p><p> </p><p>Arthur nods, and Merlin thinks that he must be on sedatives; otherwise, he would not be so calm. Arthur is usually the worst patient on Earth.</p><p> </p><p>“Everyone made it. There are no casualties.” Merlin can see Arthur smiles at hearing that, the corner of his eyes crinkling. “The doctor says there’s no infection,” Merlin continues, “so all is good news.”</p><p> </p><p>Merlin never has problems filling the silences. He can talk about everything in any situation. But in moments like this, Merlin struggles not to break down. Even when Merlin can see Arthur is fine and he will recover in a few days. After all, it is not the first time Arthur gets hurt or suffers smoke inhalation, as it is today. It is a common risk of being a firefighter.</p><p> </p><p>“The doctor says they’ll discharge you in a couple of days. So you’ll not be getting out of our camping trip,” Merlin says, and he forces himself to smile. Arthur rolls his eyes, and now Merlin’s laugh is genuine.</p><p> </p><p>Arthur starts blinking, and soon he is asleep. Merlin feels a bit of the tension fading away and realizes this is his favourite thing in the world: having Arthur safe and sound.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>